I don't own Thor or any of the Marvel characters. I only own Riona and my own original characters.
Finally! After over a year, I come back to this. I am so sorry for getting back to writing this so late. I decided to take a bit of a break from writing this and writing in general. But I am back and excited to continue writing this. I will say that I have rewritten the previous chapters so I highly recommend that you go back and read those before you read this chapter or else it'll get confusing.
That's if you read this when I first published this story. If you're reading it from 2/3/21 and onward, then you are up to speed and don't need to.
"Easy, easy." Riona laughed as Thor walked with Erik slung over his shoulder.
Riona ran up to Jane's trailer and banged on the door. "Jane open up!" Riona yelled.
The trailer door swung open, Jane gasping at the sight of Erik over Thor's shoulder."Oh my god. Is he okay?" Jane asked, backing up to let Thor in the trailer.
"He's fine. Not injured at all." Thor walked up the steps, accidentally hitting Erik's head on the way up.
"I'm sorry my friend." Thor chuckled with a smile.
"What happened?" Jane asked, her hands up ready to help Thor if needed.
"We drank. We fought. He made his ancestors proud." Thor happily answered Jane.
Jane nodded. "Put him on the bed."
Thor moves through the small trailer carrying Erik, smashing into things along the way, until he finally sets Erik down on Jane's bed.
Erik awakens groggily and looks up at him through bleary eyes. "I still don't think you're the God of Thunder."
"But you ought to be." Erik patted Thor's face, the two chuckled.
Jane looked at Riona and dragged her over to the other side.
"How'd it go? What happened? Did you find-"
Riona pulled out her notebook, stopping Jane mid-sentence.
She stared at it, surprised that Riona even got it back. Jane took it from her hands carefully and suddenly gave Riona a bone-crushing hug.
Riona laughed lightly at her display of affection. While still hugging Jane, Thor's eyes connected with Riona's.
Riona gestured toward the door. 'I'll be out in a minute.' She mouthed to him. He nodded with a smile and walked out of the trailer.
"Thank you." Jane whispered.
Riona smiled, enjoying the hug. "It was no problem, Jane."
They pulled away, the two of them staring into each other's eyes. Jane smiled a little and brushed a strand of hair from Riona's messy bun, behind her ear, "I would thank you how I usually do but…" Jane smirked at Riona. "You and Thor."
Riona rolled her eyes, "God, not this again."
"I'm serious. He seems to really like you. I see the way you look at him. Come on Riona." Jane took her hand. "Give him a chance... give love a chance."
Riona bit her lip and looked down at her shifting feet. "Yeah, maybe I will."
Riona grabs Jane's hand lightly, placing a small kiss on her inner wrist. Jane's and Riona's relationship was, to say the least complicated. They were best friends, but let's just some nights alone together lead to certain things.
It wasn't exactly love in the romantic sense but in the sense of having someone to be emotionally there for them. Comfort is what they got out of each other and very rarely did they seek it. But, giving each other intimate touches was normal, even if they did each find someone romantically.
Thor and Riona sat on top of the roof of Smith Motors, by the fire pit. There's a telescope set up, a couple of chairs, some blankets. Beside the place where Riona slept was a pile of books and unfinished drawings. "This is where you sleep?" Thor asked.
Riona clasped her hands together and nodded, "Yep. From this spot, I can see the thousands of stars. I always liked the night sky, ever since I was a child. So many memories were made underneath the stars."
Silence sat between them. It wasn't awkward or anything, it was quite relaxing actually. Today had been a long day and a very hectic one at that. "I'm glad you're safe." Riona told Thor.
Riona turned to him. "After all the fighting and questioning. I'm happy that you're here by the end of it."
Thor faintly smiled. "You've been very kind to me. I-I've been far less grateful than you deserve."
"Well, we've kind of hit you with Jane's car a couple of times so I think that evens things out." They laughed at her attempt at humor.
Riona reached out of her jacket pocket to reveal Jane's notebook. She asked Riona to keep it until Thor gave her some answers.
"Speaking of Jane, now she won't have to start from scratch anymore. But, S.H.I.E.L.D, whoever they are, they're going to make sure her research never sees the light of day." Riona flipped through the pages absentmindedly.
"You must... you must encourage her to finish what she started." Thor tells me.
"Why?"
"Because the both of you are right." Thor moves beside Riona, turns to the page which bears a sketch of the Bifrost. He takes the pen from the notebook, begins to add to the sketch, leading from one point to another in space. "Here look."
"The midgardians ancestors called it magic, and you call it science. Well, I come from a place where they're one and the same thing." Thor explains.
"Ancestors…" Riona trailed off.
Thor stopped drawing to look over at Riona who was now staring at the fire, "From what I remember, you said you were created? Not born?"
Riona nodded, "Yeah, apparently I was created by my father. Along with my sisters."
"Sisters?" Thor asked.
Riona hummed, "I have five sisters." Riona looked over at Thor and took a breath, "Let me ask you this. Have you ever heard of something called The Guardians?"
Thor nodded, "My father would tell us a story about these all-powerful beings known as, as you said, The Guardians. Six-"
Thor stopped midway and it clicked. Riona and her five sisters made six. And there would be no other reason why Riona would ask about them. Their legend was so old that all living creatures thought they would never reveal themselves.
"Milady Riona, are you a Guardian?" Thor asked.
Riona bit her lip and nodded, "The Guardian of Reality. That's why I can do the things I can do. My sisters and were separated into six different alternate realities. I was told that if were brought together at the wrong time, everything would cease to exist."
"And that's why you said, you don't know if you could ever see them?" Thor concluded. Thor reached over and grasped his large hand around her own small one.
"I'm sorry." He whispered to her.
It was three simple words. Three words that Riona didn't think would affect her as much as it did.
Riona stares up at Thor, at a loss of words, "Thor… really, you have nothing to be sorry for. It's just the way my life happened. Nothing I can do to change it now."
Riona looks away from Thor for a brief moment, not wanting to look at Thor's apologetic stare immediately. She purses her lips, "Aside from that, I do wonder about one thing."
Thor raises a brow, "One thing, milady?"
Riona points a finger at him, "That! You have addressed me as 'milady' since you escaped the hospital. Is that a customary thing on Asgard?"
Thor smiled and let out a hearty chuckle. God damn, no pun intended, that made Riona's heart thundered in her chest.
His blue eyes twinkled when he looked down at Riona, and she could swear his eyes looked down at her lips for a millisecond. Though she couldn't tell with the flames dancing in his eyes.
"I don't address women on Asgard as I address you. I think it is very fitting for you." Thor explains.
Riona narrowed her eyes playfully, "Then I guess I'll have to figure out a name for you."
Thor chuckled, "I look forward to it." As Thor stares at Riona, he found himself once again, drawn to the color of her eyes.
"Your eyes… an interesting shade they are." Thor points out.
Riona hums, "They were gray before I arrived in this dimension. When I got here, they changed red on their own. Fitting actually, it's my favorite color and that's the majority of my clothing."
Riona pauses, lifting up her hand, tendrils of red magic emitting from her hand, and her eyes glow their given color, "And it's the color of my magic."
She flicks her hand and the tendrils of her magic disappeared, and her eyes stopped glowing.
"But, enough about me. Get back to drawing and explaining, big guy." Riona smiled nudging him and letting go of his hand.
Thor nudges her back playfully and continues drawing, "My father explained it to me like this, that your world, well Midgard, is one of the Nine Realms of the Cosmos, linked to each other by the branches of Yggdrasil, the Worlds Tree."
Riona listened intently to Thor's words, her brian starting to remember how everything worked.
Thor continued, "Now you see it every day without realizing. The images glimpsed through…" Thor flips to new pages in the book, opening it up to pictures of space, "What did you call it? This Hooble Telescope."
"Hubble." Riona giggled, correcting him.
Thor nodded, smiling, "Hubble Telescope."
The two laugh at the little exchange and Riona fiddles with her fingers, "Please, tell me more." Riona asks, eager to learn more.
"So, the Nine Realms. Now, as you know, there is Midgard, which is Earth. This is Alfheim. Vanaheim. Jotunheim. And Asgard. And that's where I come from." Thor explained.
A couple of hours pass after Thor explaining everything he could to Riona, the two of them laying down on the two portable fold-up beds.
Riona was the first to fall asleep, her body turned away from Thor.
Thor looked away from the night sky and turned to Riona, pulling her sleeping bag up higher to cover her body, "Thank you, Riona."